The transport of cargos is often carried out using trucks with large trailers. Conventionally the cargos for such trailers are loaded using forklift vehicles. Because of the construction of conventional, completely enclosed trailer bodies, it is extremely difficult to fully load such trailer bodies with heavy, bulky commodities such as lumber. The doorways, roofs and side and end walls of such conventional trailer bodies provide obstructions which require, for full loading, a precision of handling and placement of the cargo which simply cannot be achieved by even the most skilled of forklift operators.
Traditionally such commodities have been loaded onto open, flatbed trailers where such obstructions are not found. As well, such open flatbed trailers allow for greater ease of loading of customers' orders when more than one drop off point is involved. The use of such open, flatbed trailers however requires the loads to be secured on the flatbed and completely covered with tarpaulins to minimize the chance of debris flying off of the trailer during transportation. Such a conventional method of transporting commodities such as lumber creates additional truck down time since the load must be uncovered and recovered with the tarpaulin at each stop. As well, it is difficult to maintain the load in a clean state, free from road grime and safety problems such as spills and upset resulting from shifting loads may occur. There is also a danger on an open flatbed trailer of stacking the load to a height greater than is safe or greater than highway height restrictions might permit.
Some of these difficulties have been partially addressed in the prior art. For example, Fredin U.S. Pat. No. 4,489.975 issued Dec. 25, 1984 describes and illustrates a trailer having front, back and side walls circumscribing a platform, in which one of the sidewalls may be swung upwardly to completely open the side for loading and unloading. This construction requires a fairly complicated pivot arrangement for the whole side wall. Furthermore, this arrangement does not provide for a completely enclosed trailer body: it has no roof and would still require tarpaulin coverage of many types of cargo. Canadian Pat. No. 755,511 of Chieger et al issued Mar. 28, 1967 describes and illustrates a system of removable side racks for a flatbed trailer. Canadian Pat. Nos. 644,734 of Bitterman et al issued July 10, 1962 and 1,212,139 of Broadbent issued Sept. 30, 1986 describe alternative constructions of side loading trailer bodies, Bitterman et al teaching a system of sliding doors along the sides of the trailer platform and Broadbent teaching a folding, curtain-like side construction for the trailer body which can be collapsed to open a portion of the side of the trailer body for loading.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved construction completely enclosable trailer body which will permit easy loading and unloading thereof from the side.